Hello, We are integrating Mixpanel to import server events from our backend. For example, when sending an event with event_name = "db_success_subscription_premium", we sometimes encounter the following error:
raise MixpanelException("Cannot interpret Mixpanel server response: {0}".format(response.text))Could you please help us understand the potential causes of this issue and how can we solve it?
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I'd be happy to help you understand the potential causes of the error you're encountering when importing server events to Mixpanel.The error message raise MixpanelException("Cannot interpret Mixpanel server response: {0}".format(response.text)) typically occurs when the Python SDK cannot properly interpret the response from Mixpanel's servers. This could happen for several reasons:
Potential Causes and Solutions
1. Validation Errors: Your event data might not be properly formatted or might contain invalid values. When events fail validation, Mixpanel returns a 400 status code with details about the failed records. For example:
"code": 400,
"error": "some data points in the request failed validation",
"failed_records": [
{
"index": 0,
"$insert_id": "8a66058c-a56d-4ef6-8123-28b7c9f7e82f",
"field": "properties.time",
"message": "properties.time' is invalid: must be specified as seconds since epoch"
}
],
"num_records_imported": 23,
"status": "Bad Request"
}
```LBKS
Check your event properties, especially timestamp formats and ensure all strings are valid UTF-8 [Import Events Validation](https://github.com/mixpanel/docs/blob/main/reference/Ingestion%20API/events/import-events.md).LBKS2. **Rate Limiting**: You might be hitting Mixpanel's rate limits.LBKS Mixpanel enforces a rate limit of 2GB of uncompressed JSON/minute or ~30k events per second. If you exceed this limit, you'll receive a 429 response code [Rate Limits](https://github.com/mixpanel/docs/blob/main/reference/Mixpanel%20APIs/rate-limits.md).LBKS3. **Authentication Issues**: Ensure you're using the correct project token or authentication credentials.LBKS For server-side implementations, consider using the `/import` endpoint instead of `/track` as it's more suitable for server-side integrations [Track Events](https://github.com/mixpanel/docs/blob/main/reference/Ingestion%20API/events/track-event.md).LBKS4. **Event Size Limits**: Each event has size constraints:
- Must be smaller than 1MB of uncompressed JSON
- Must have fewer than 255 properties
- Nested objects must have fewer than 255 keys with max nesting depth of 3
- Arrays must have fewer than 255 elements
Debugging Recommendations
1. Enable Verbose Logging: If you're using the Python SDK, check if there's an option to enable more detailed logging.2. Inspect the Full Response: Try to capture and print the full response text to see the exact error message from Mixpanel.3. Use the Mixpanel Debugger: For debugging purposes, you can use tools like the Segment Source Debugger if you're using Segment as an integration Segment Debugging.4. Check Event Format: Ensure your event format follows Mixpanel's requirements:
Example of proper event format
mp.track('12345', 'some_event', { 'plan': 'premium' })
```5. Consider Using Import API: For server-side tracking, especially for historical data, consider using the import_data() function instead of track()Â Python SDK.If you continue to experience issues, I'd recommend examining the full response text to get more specific information about what's causing the error.
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